REFORM Newsletter No 7 - August, 2015

Welcome editorial by the REFORM CoordinatorREFORM Coordinator Tom Buijse briefly introduces the contents of the seventh newsletter of the project.Read more

Spotlight on river restoration at the REFORM final conferenceWith great success, the final conference of REFORM on 'Novel Approaches to Assess and Rehabilitate Modified Rivers' took place from 30 June to 2 July 2015 in the Conference Center Hof van Wageningen, in the Netherlands. 170 participants from 26 countries represented the wide range of groups that make up the river restoration community. The three-day conference featured 15 key note lectures, 58 oral presentations and 38 posters that provided the ingredients and inspiration that persuaded participants to share their experiences, aspirations, challenges and new approaches to enhance the success of river restoration. The conference closed with a field excursion, attended by 100 people, to two 'Room for the river' projects.Read more

River restoration in US and Europe: Interviews with two of our conference keynote speakersIn an interview for this edition of the REFORM Newsletter, Dr. Philip Roni (US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and Dr. Stan Gregory (Oregon State University) share their insights into similarities and differences of river restoration in the EU and the US. In particular, they shared their views on good elements of river restoration, the importance of monitoring and the contribution of REFORM to river restoration in science and practice.Read more

REFORM Summer School – Lectures available onlineThe REFORM Summer School took place last June in Wageningen, the Netherlands. Students and early career researchers participated in the 3 day-event preceding REFORM’s Final Conference. In addition to attending lectures in a range of disciplines such as hydrology, morphology and ecology and addressing key topics for cost-effective river rehabilitation planning, the participants visited two contrasting restoration projects. This gave them the chance to apply theory to practice and draft a restoration strategy based on the lessons learned during the lectures and field trips.Read more

Cost-effective restoration measuresthat promote wider ecosystem and societal benefitsIn response to the current lack of specific guidance and experience on the calculation of costs and benefits and social cost-benefit analysis of river restoration projects, REFORM has produced and published a guidance document on cost-effective restoration measures that promote wider ecosystem and societal benefits. The report provides an overview of existing guidelines, identifies and discusses key methodological issues in a CBA of river restoration, and develops an approach that can be used to assess benefits when it is not possible to carry out primary valuation research. A number of practical recommendations to practitioners are also provided. The report is available for download.Read more

What's wrong with my river?To address the possible complications faced by practitioners and other stakeholders in identifying degradation issues in rivers, REFORM has recently produced a guidance to detect impact of HyMo degradation on riparian ecosystems. The report contains guidance on how to identify and understand the impacts of hydromorphological degradation using a generic 5-step approach. It also includes lessons learned from several case study examples which illustrated and inspired the 5 step approach to understanding impact. In addition, many of the findings gathered in the document are directly relevant to assessing in-stream conditions. The report is available for download.Read more

PhD research in REFORM – Interactions between aquatic macrophytes and hydromorphology in riversIn this article Sabine Scheunig from IGB Berlin presents her PhD research which explores the responses of macrophytes to river restoration measures over time, an essential issue for the sustainable conduction of restoration projects. The fieldwork for this research, which took place in the lowlands of the river Spree in Germany, is supplemented by a review of 170 cases from around the world. Preliminary results emphasize the suitability of helophytes as indicators for effective river restoration. In particular, they reflect the connectivity between the river bed and its adjacent area.Read more

PhD research in REFORM - The effect of stream restoration on metabolism, leaf breakdown rate and macroinvertebrate species compositionIn this article Anette Baisner Alnoee from Aarhus University presents her PhD research which studies the effects of restoration on the functional parameters of rivers such as stream metabolism, organic matter breakdown rates or nutrient uptake rates by different stream organisms. To achieve this, the work compares functional parameters and macroinvertebrate species composition in three different stream types. Preliminary results show no difference in metabolism and breakdown rates across the different stream types while macroinvertebrate composition exhibit variations.Read more

Restoration of longitudinal connectivity and salmonid habitat in River Mörrumsån (Sweden)River Mörrumsån, located in southern Sweden, is regarded as the best known salmon-bearing river in Sweden. On the other hand, exploitation for hydropower production has affected the river’s longitudinal connectivity. Since the early 1990’s restoration measures started being discussed, and after years of planning and testing, the first actions were taken in 2003. Measures implemented up to date include e.g. grey measures such as fish-ways and soft measures as a water rights entitlement. The success of the restoration of Mörrumsån is known within Sweden as a good example for cooperation between private stakeholders and government agencies.Read more